1. Field
The present application relates to regulating communication between devices, and in particular, to resource conservation for data communication protocol compliant devices.
2. Background
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard defines a data communication protocol for connecting electronic peripheral devices to a host device. Thus far, there have been three releases of the USB standard (USB 1.0, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0). The USB standard was originally conceived to replace non-standardized serial and parallel data ports on computers, which called for various device drivers to be developed and maintained. However, the ensuing popularity of the USB standard has made USB ports standard features on video game consoles, DVD players, smart phones, and a wide variety of other consumer electronics.
Peripherals are sometimes referred to as functions, and may include other computers and devices such as keyboards, scanners, digital cameras, printers, external storage devices, etc. The USB standard enables plug-and-play capabilities, meaning that peripheral devices can be connected and disconnected from a host without powering down or rebooting the host. Rather, when a device is first connected, the host enumerates and recognizes it, and loads the device driver needed for that device. The host and connected peripheral are then able to communicate data to one another.